Episode Details

Why do some Chabad followers still fly yellow "Moshiach" flags thirty years after their Rebbe died? This episode unpacks Chabad messianism — how a faction within the movement developed a "second coming" workaround after Menachem Mendel Schneerson's death in 1994. We trace the mainstream Jewish view of the Messiah (a human who accomplishes concrete, observable tasks like rebuilding the Temple and ending war) and show why that view made early Christianity's redefinition of "Messiah" into a fundamentally different religion. Finally, we examine Jews for Jesus and why mainstream Judaism rejects their claim that belief in Jesus fulfills Jewish prophecy.